The Dress

Chapter 9

A Strange Sound

The next day Keenan meets me right by the school entrance, he's wearing some khaki pants and a checkered sweater. He stands casually leaning on to the side of a tall tree with his bag slung over his shoulder. I see by the browning of the leaves and the chilly atmosphere that fall isn't too far away now, I better take advantage of whatever of the warm temperature that's left.

"Hey," Keenan greets me smiling and for the first time I notice how tall Keenan really is. Either that or I'm just super short; well whatever the reason is he has to bend over just to talk to me. We remain outside chatting for a few minutes before the bell rings signalling the the start of the first period.
Keenan accompanies me to my class and bids me goodbye before heading to his class in the opposite direction.

At break I find Keenan standing by my locker distractedly looking at the stickers I stuck on on the first week of school. From afar he looks calm and almost at ease, I see his thin lips twitch into a slight smile as he continues to gaze at my version of art.

"Don't stare for too long, they might suck you in," I say teasingly. Keenan lets out a low chuckle and asks to have lunch with me at the school's cafeteria.

"Well sure but I usually have lunch with Giselle and a bunch of her friends." Keenan shoots a shocked look my way and raises his eyebrows questioningly.

"What?" I ask. "You're friends with Giselle Taylor?" He asks almost in disbelief.
"Well yeah, Principal Rydell wanted to help me get accustomed to the school a bit more so he assigned Giselle to be sort of like my school guide." I explain. Keenan nods then goes silent for a bit, I sneak a look at him from the corner of my eye and he seems to be baffled yet slightly intrigued.

"What's the matter?" I ask him but I can already guess what he's going to say next.
"Well...it's nothing really. I'm just a little amazed because Giselle isn't the easiest person to talk to around here. She's...different." I bite my lower lip at the statement and I let it mull over inside my mind. He does have a point but she's not that bad once you get to know her, she can be kind of sweet sometimes. Well 'sweet' may not be the appropriate word in this case but it's almost accurate.

"Giselle has a strong character but that's what makes her so cool to be with." I say smiling, I look over and I can see that Keenan is not so convinced so I try a different approach.
"We can sit at your table today then we'll try having lunch with her tomorrow. Sound good?" Keenan looks relieved by this and silently agrees to the idea but I can still see the doubt swimming in his eyes. When we finish grabbing our trays we meander through the sea of students and I try to look out for Keenan's friends. I don't know what type of person Keenan is yet so maybe I'll get an inside look through his friends, after all, birds that flock together right? We move around for a bit before landing on a table with about three guys sitting and two of them seem to be having a heated discussion over something.

"...no! How could you possibly say that?!" I hear one of them shout, Keenan pauses behind me and just stares at the two guys arguing. I look back and I see him roll his eyes with a dull expression on his face, he shakes his head when he notices me looking at him and then slightly smiles. We continue standing there silently listening to the argument unravel, I try to understand what's going on amongst them but I'm too lost in the conversation to pick anything up.

"Please don't start this again, I need to study for the test we have next period," one of the other guys whine but no one seems to notice him. From the looks of it Keenan's friends seem quite interesting already, this is a good sign. Keenan looking fed up by the argument places his tray on the table and says "Hi" a little too loudly and this puts a halt to the argument at hand. The two boys stare at Keenan looking surprised yet pleased to see him, a round of greetings erupt from the table.